The present invention relates to a safety seat for children that is attached to a seat of a motor vehicle and protects a child from an impact, an external discharge from a vehicle or the like at a time of collision.
Importance of safety seats for children is a common recognition in all the countries in the world, and in our country as well, an amendment of Road Traffic Law that includes such obligations for wearing a safety seat for children went into effect in April, 2000. Together therewith, there has been developed various kinds of safety seats for children, however, in view of the necessity to meet safety standards, basic structures thereof are substantially common.
That is, most of the safety seats for children are provided with a seat-shaped main body portion obtained by combining a seat surface portion and a back rest reclining portion so as to make it compact in correspondence to a body shape of the child, and are structured such that the main body portion is mounted on a base portion except a part thereof. Then, by using a seat belt, the main body portion is fixed to a seat of a motor vehicle, and the child is fixed by a belt provided in the main body portion.
It is needless to say that the safety seat for children having such a basic structure has high safety, however, on the contrary, since a size and a weight of the safety seat for children are increased, there are problems that it is not easily attached to and detached from a seat of a motor vehicle, as well as such a safety seat for children is not easily stored and carried.
As a structure for solving the problems in view of handling, there has been developed a wear type safety seat for children. This is structured such that a crotch belt or the like is attached to a vest type main body portion so as to obtain a fixing function to the child, as well as a seat belt of the motor vehicle is passed through a back portion thereof so as to obtain a fixing function to the seat.
It is needless to say that the safety seat for children of such a flexible structure has a greater handling property. Further, it is allowed by the safety standard and has no problem in view of safety. However, in accordance with the safety seat for children of this kind, the child directly sits on a seat surface of the motor vehicle, and in most cases, an eye line is disposed below a window and screened by a door. As a result, the child has a great cooped-up feeling.
First of all, the safety seat for children restrains the child without relation to the type thereof and gives not a little uncomfortable feeling, so that it is said to be a great problem to give a cooped-up feeling so as to increase an uncomfortable feeling.
Further, the wear type safety seat for children applied a great pressure to shoulder portions of the child at a time of collision and in some cases there is a risk that a clavicle is broken.
The present invention is made by taking the matters mentioned above into consideration, and an object of the present invention is to provide a safety seat for children which can of course secure a high safety, is excellent in a handling property and can widely reduce an uncomfortable feeling of a child.
In order to achieve the object mentioned above, a safety seat for children according to the present invention, comprising: a seat surface portion having a flexible structure; and a back rest reclining portion having a flexible structure, characterized in that at least the seat surface portion among the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion is constituted by an airtight bag body expanding due to an injection of gas so as to form an air cushion, at least the back rest reclining portion among the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion has a fixing mechanism with respect to a child, and at least one of the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion has a fixing mechanism with respect to a seat of a motor vehicle.
In accordance with the safety seat for children according to the present invention, in spite that the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion have the flexible structure, it is possible to sit the child at a high position and it is possible to make an eye line high, whereby it is possible to remove a cooped-up feeling. Further, since at least the back rest reclining portion among the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion has the fixing mechanism with respect to the child, it is possible to secure a necessary safety.
The fixing mechanism with respect to the child can be constituted by a wear type, preferably a vest shaped wear type fixing portion. Accordingly, it is possible to securely fix the child.
The wear type fixing portion can be structured such that an air cushion is provided in at least a part thereof, preferably in at least both shoulder portions, and more preferably in a portion extending from both shoulder portions to a back. Accordingly, it is possible to increase an impact absorbing property and improve a safety. Further, a sitting feeling can be improved.
The wear type fixing portion can be combined with a crotch hanging type fixing belt. Accordingly, it is possible to more securely fix the child.
The wear type fixing portion can be combined with a pants type fixing portion. Accordingly, it is possible to more securely fix the child.
The wear type fixing portion can be commonly used as the back rest reclining portion. Accordingly, a structure can be simplified.
The wear type fixing portion commonly used as the back rest reclining portion can be structured so as to be attached to and detached from the seat surface portion. Accordingly, it is possible to improve a mounting property to the child.
The fixing mechanism with respect to the child may be a multi-point supporting type fixing belt. The fixing mechanism with respect to the seat of the motor vehicle is provided in at least one of the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion, however, in view of preventing the back rest reclining portion from being bent forward so as to be fallen down at a time of being exposed to an impact, it is preferable to provide it in the portion including the back rest reclining portion, and in the case of using the wear type fixing portion, it is preferable to provide it therein.
The seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion can be constituted by an airtight bag body. Accordingly, a sitting feeling can be improved and a safety can be improved.
In this case, the seat surface portion and the back rest reclining portion may be structured so as to form a seat-shaped air cushion in a state that the gas is injected, or may be structured so as to form a mat-shaped air cushion in a state that the gas is injected and to deform along the seat surface and the back rest reclining portion in a state of being mounted to the seat of the motor vehicle, thereby forming a seat-shaped air cushion. In the latter case, it is possible to be folded particularly in a compact size in a state that the air is taken out.